During the course of many medical procedures, it is often necessary to introduce a catheter or cannula that incorporates an inflatable member, such as a balloon catheter, into the circulatory system of the patient. However, before such a device can be safely utilized, the physician, or other qualified medical personnel, must institute a degassing process. That is, gasses, such as air, entrained in the device during manufacturing and packaging must be displaced so that if the inflatable member should leak or rupture during use, the chance of gas being released into the circulatory system is minimized.
For example, when utilizing PTCA catheters or intra-aortic balloon occlusion catheters/cannula, medical personnel must typically perform repeated liquid inflation and deflation cycles prior to placement of the device, in an effort to remove all entrapped air from the inflatable member. This tedious process is often difficult to accomplish. Furthermore, the degassing process is time consuming, inconvenient, and costly.
The need to perform numerous inflation and deflation cycles in an effort to remove all entrained gasses can also severely limit the design of the overall device. In particular, intravascular devices that have a large volume of inflation tubing in comparison to the overall volume of the inflatable member tend to be especially difficult to degas.
Accordingly, there is a need for an intravascular device that incorporates an inflatable member, such as a balloon catheter, which permits rapid and efficient degassing of the device. Furthermore, there is a need for such a device which also places few, if any, restrictions on design choices. The present invention satisfies both of these needs.